I was at Raffles City Starbucks last week when a Korean tourist approached me and asked if there is free internet service here. I told her that we have a free internet service call Wireless@sg. All she needs is to register at the login page.

Minutes later, she approached me again and asked how to register. So I guided her along the registration process until we stumble upon something. You need to have a local mobile phone number in order to register for a Wireless@sg account.

Hello?!?! What is the chances of a tourist having a +65 mobile phone number? Why aren’t they allowed to register with their telephone number from their country?

Wireless@sg registration for tourist is rather tedious and troublesome. A Malaysian journalist from ZDnet Asia wrote about his ‘registration experience’ with Wireless@sg at Changi Airport early this year. No prize for guessing if he managed to login to our Nation’s Next Generation National Infocomm Infrastructure initiative.

Perhaps we can take a leaf out of Malaysia’s Wireless@kl book. Tourist can register for an account at Wireless@kl website before visiting Malaysia. The activation code is send to your mobile number and you don’t need a Malaysian mobile phone number to register for Wireless@kl. My Singapore mobile number works fine.

Look at Singapore’s Wireless@sg. We don’t even have a dedicated page for Wireless@sg. We have 3 separate registration page run by 3 operators. Won’t that add on to more confusion for the tourist? And none of them allow you to register if you don’t have a Singapore mobile phone number. If you are a tourist without a Singapore mobile phone, you can register at Changi Airport’s information counters. Seriously? Like if I’m at Raffles City at midnight and I need to use Wireles@sg, I have to go down to Changi Airport to register for an account? And what is the information counter’s opening hour?

If IDA is serious about allowing tourists/visitors use wireless@sg, I think they need to seriously re-look into the registration process. Else, please remove the link for tourist to register a wireless@sg account.

So in the end, the Korean tourist couldn’t register a Wireless@sg account. I have to login my account on her netbook so that she could send email back to her family and friends in Korea.

Haha. It’s not everyday you get to see a company advertising on a competitor’s website.

I still get the weird feeling whenever I’m using Qmax wireless@sg. Don’t like their shameless way of inserting advertisement at the bottom of every webpage that we visit. True enough that this is a free WIFI network. But the other two wireless@sg service provider didn’t do that. Didn’t IDA pay them enough?

The same question still lingers in my head. Can website owners sue creative for forcing advertisement on their website?

OK, I promised that I will stop shooting wireless@sg so frequently ever since I got my Singnet Mobile Broadband. But sometimes when I’m lazy to take out the modem and wireless@sg never to fail me.

I’m now at Marina Square Starbucks. Here is the problem. Starbucks’ wireless@sg service provider is Singtel. There is another iCell wireless@sg network nearby. I think it’s from McDonalds.

So I login to the Singtel wireless@sg. After using the internet for awhile, I got disconnected from the Singnet wireless@sg for no reason and got connected to the iCell wireless@sg. (Since all 3 service provider are using wireless@sg as the router name) And I need to re-login to the iCell wireless@sg. And after awhile, I got disconnected from iCell wireless@sg for no reason again and got connected to the Singtel wireless@sg. And to make things worst, I need to re-login to Singtel wireless@sg AGAIN. And this thing goes on and on and on.

HELLO! What the heck is wrong with wireless@sg? Why do I keep getting disconnected? And the 3 wireless@sg service provider really should wake up their idea. It’s time they start sharing their database and not make users login multiple times when they switch between wireless@sg router. And why do I have to re-login to wireless@sg Singtel/iCell after I was disconnected when I login 5 minutes ago?

Anyone from wireless@sg reading this? Or you guys having difficulties connecting to wireless@sg too?